Residents of Schoonard given one week to relocate for recreational park construction

Feb 16, 2026 News

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(Kaieteur News) – Residents of Schoonard, West Bank Demerara, mostly single mothers living near the Guyana–China Friendship Park (Joe Vieira Park), have been issued eviction notices, demanding that they relocate within a week to allow the continuation of construction for a recreational park.

The affected residents have been warned that legal action could follow if they remain in their homes.

The homes in the area include both concrete and well-built wooden structures. A resident, a single mother of two young children who has lived in the area for three years, shared her concerns with Kaieteur News. She revealed that a total of nine homes, including those of three other single mothers, had received two previous notices from the Regional Democratic Council and the Ministry of Housing between November and December 2025. Now, they have been issued a third notice, urging them to relocate within seven days.

The eviction is being enforced due to the construction of the Guyana–China Friendship Joe Vieira Park, which is reportedly 83% complete as of October 2025 and slated to open in the first quarter of 2026. The resident explained that work cannot continue while people remain in the area, and that the contractor is already paid, with further delays leading to additional costs. “When a representative of the Ministry of Housing reached out to me, he told me that we need to relocate as early as possible because where we living, we disrupting works going on because they already paid the contractor and we slowing up the progress, because if we don’t move, we got to pay the contractor additional money,” she said.

Though the resident was allocated a plot of land like others in the area, she noted that the land is underdeveloped, lacking essential utilities like water and electricity. “There is no light, there is no water. The place isn’t fully developed as yet. I got small children to carry to school.  How are we going to move on an empty land?” she said.

The resident explained that no formal meetings had been held with the residents to discuss a proper relocation plan. Instead, after returning home from work, they would find notices tucked into their doors and markings on their homes. ” Nobody coming to meet us. You would find things stick up on the door, they would mark the building and they would push letters under the door,” she said.

This latest notice has left the mother of two uncertain about her next steps. “We want other officials to see what is going and we want the government to come with a better solution.  As a parent, I don’t know what is the next move. Where am I going to go? Even though I have a land it is not fully developed. If they want us to move so badly they must be able to breach out to us to come up with a resolution to satisfy both of us. We are willing to go if they assist. It’s not what you do but how you do it,” she said.

Another long-time resident, Vibert Garnett, who has lived in the area for 10 years, also expressed frustration. This is the first time he has received an eviction notice. He mentioned that many residents, upon hearing of the land allocation process, applied for relocation. Some were given plots in remote areas with no water or electricity, while Garnett has yet to receive any updates about his situation. “They said we have to move as soon as we get the land, but no one from the Ministry of Housing has reached out to me,” he said.

On Saturday, Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed visited the area to listen to the residents’ concerns. The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party is calling on the Ministry of Housing to develop a fair, humane, and workable relocation plan, in consultation with affected residents.

In a statement, the party criticised the one-week notice given to residents, with one resident expressing dissatisfaction that it took him three years to build his home only to be told to vacate in such a short time. The party further stated, “No suitable alternative housing arrangements have been provided, nor has reasonable consideration been given to their circumstances. Many of these families are of limited financial means and simply cannot afford to build or rent elsewhere on such short notice.”

Additionally, some residents who do not own land were summoned to the housing department, expecting to receive house lots or turnkey homes. Instead, they were told they would need to pay a $500,000 upfront fee to secure an allocation, a sum many cannot afford at this time.

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• Construction, recreational park, Residents, Schoonard

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